Cheesy Polenta:

Serving suggestion: Serve with the cheesy polenta or warm tortillas, chips for dipping, wrapping or dunking.

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Rub the loins with extra-virgin olive oil and lots of salt and coarse pepper. Combine the onions with the garlic, chile, rosemary, and thyme, and then dress with extra-virgin olive oil and salt and pepper. Arrange a bed of potatoes in a roaster pan. Place the pork loins over the potatoes. Add the fennel to one of the loins (the other is for the Pork and Poblano Green Chili Pot recipe, recipe follows). Pile the onion-flavoring paste evenly over the pork loins. Roast the meats 1 hour. Pour the wine evenly around the pan, and then shake the pan to loosen the potatoes or use a spoon to mix them around a bit. Add the pork back to the oven and roast another 25 minutes or so, until a thermometer inserted in the loin reads 160 degrees F. Let the meat rest, then carve and serve with potatoes and pan drippings.

Cool the remaining loin, cover in plastic wrap and reserve for another meal.

Serve with Creamy Mushrooms and Kale recipe follows.

Creamy Mushrooms and Kale:

Stem and slice or coarsely chop the mushroom blend. Heat the extra-virgin olive oil, 4 turns of the pan, over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms to the pan and brown 10 minutes, then add in the garlic, thyme, and sage, stir 2 to 3 minutes, then add the kale and cook until just wilted. Season with salt, pepper, and a few grates of nutmeg. Stir a few minutes more, then add in the Marsala and reduce the liquid by half, another minute or 2. Add the cream to the mushrooms in the pan and reduce heat, let the flavors combine a few minutes and cream thickens. Serve the mushroom dish garnished with a few grates of cheese.

Cheesy Polenta:

Char the poblano peppers all over by placing the peppers on stovetop burners or under a hot broiler until black, turning frequently. Place the charred peppers in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap to steam them as they cool. Rub the skins off the poblanos and jalapenos with paper towel or peel by hand, then seed the peppers and chop.

Meanwhile, heat the extra-virgin olive oil in a medium-size Dutch oven over medium heat, add the onions and sweat 10 minutes then add the garlic and tomatillos and cook 10 minutes more; season with salt and pepper. Place the cooked onion-tomatillo mixture in a food processor with cilantro, cumin, honey, and puree. Add the puree back to the Dutch oven, then stir in the chopped peppers and chicken stock. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat to low for the flavors to combine. Slice and finely chop the cooked pork and stir into the chili. When the soup returns to a bubble, turn off the stove, cool completely and store for make-ahead meal.

To reheat the chili: Place in covered pot over medium heat and cook until the pork comes to a bubble, stir in the juice of 1 lime and turn off the heat. Slice the remaining lime into wedges and serve alongside the chili.

For the cheesy polenta: In medium saucepan, bring the chicken stock and milk to a boil. Whisk in the polenta, stirring until the polenta just pulls from the side of the pot. Stir in the Manchego cheese and serve warm.

Cook’s Note

Heads up: you're roasting 2 loins of pork for this recipe which would feed up to 12 for an entree but the sides are allowing 4 to 6 portions as the second loin is used for other meals/recipes being prepared later in the week. The loins can sit, covered, at room temperature for up to 2 hours to marinate. Roast 2 hours before dinnertime on the evening of your Cook Day.